Monday, August 16, 2010

Adding In Weights

Most triathletes have a great aerobic base. They've spent hours and hours running, biking and swimming. But's hard to carve out one more chunk of time for strength training.

Using your time in the gym wisely can give you a big advantage on your next race. Joe Friel has some great pointers in his book The Triathlete's Training Bible.

Here are some guidelines I follow:
-- Plan for 30 minutes in the gym. Take your ipod if you are chatty. Go in with a purpose and get it done.

-- Focus on prime movers. For triathletes, that's hamstrings, glutes, lats and chest. But don't forget the core. If the core is weak the whole body fails.

-- Use multi-joint exercises. Bicep curls move a single joint. Squats, however, involve three joints, the hip, knee and ankle. These exercises give you more bang for your buck.

--Keep the number of exercises low. To concentrate on specific movements, keep your workout simple and focus more on the number of sets you will do than the number of exercises.

--Periodize your strength training. Keep your overall training plan and goals in mind when you begin strength training. Every third or fourth week you should reduce your training volume in the gym to coincide with a recovery week. Then, eliminate or scale back strength training as a race gets closer.

--Don't forget to stretch. Take a few minutes out of your gym time to stretch. There are great stretch apparatuses in the gym or if you are working out with a friend, stretch each other.